Hispanic Construction Worker Killed When Struck by Excavator Bucket

Details

• Personal Author:
  Bost, Patrick ; Bresnitz, Eddy A. ; Gerwel, Barbara ; Lefkowitz, Daniel ; Ludwig, Gary ; O'Hagan, Emily ; Schill, Donald P. ; Valiante, David J.
• Corporate Authors:
  New Jersey Fatality Assessment & Control Evaluation Project (NJ FACE) ; New Jersey. Department of Health and Senior Services. Occupational Health Service
• Description:
  On September 12, 2003, a 28-year-old Hispanic carpenter was killed after he was stuck by the bucket of an excavator (trackhoe). The incident occurred at the construction site of a building being renovated into a nursery school. Part of the construction was the installation of stairs leading down from a narrow driveway into the basement of the building. The crew of five workers started at the site in the morning to work on the interior and to excavate a passage for the stairs. Shortly after arriving, the foreman at the site was called away by the owner of the company. The foreman instructed one of the carpenters on how to use the excavator before he left. The excavator operator/carpenter and a helper worked in the driveway, while the remaining two carpenters worked in the basement. At approximately 11:00 a.m., one of the carpenters came out of the basement to deposit some trash in a dumpster. The excavator operator saw and warned the carpenter (victim) before moving the excavator to the dumpster. He did not see the victim, who was struck on the head as he walked in the narrow driveway. NJ FACE investigators recommend following these safety guidelines to prevent similar incidents: 1. Excavator operators must be thoroughly trained in the safe operation of the machine and demonstrate proficiency before operating machinery. 2. Hazardous work sites should be closely supervised and marked out before operating heavy equipment. 3. Employers should conduct a job hazard analysis of all work activities with the participation of the workers. 4. The employer should develop, implement, and enforce a comprehensive safety training program in the languages and literacy levels of the employees.
• Subjects:
  Accident Prevention Accidents Accidents, Occupational Construction Industry Occupational Health Safety Safety Management Staff Development Workplace
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accident-potential Accident-prevention Construction-industry Construction-workers Equipment-operators Injuries Injury-prevention OSHA Region 2 Safety-education Safety-equipment Safety-measures Safety-practices Safety-programs Training Traumatic-injuries Work-areas Work-environment Work-practices

  More +
• FACE - NIOSH and State:
  FACE ; Construction ; Hispanic - Construction ; Machine (All) ; Machine - Construction ; Foreign Born Workers ; Prevention through Design (PtD)
• Series:
  Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation Reports (FACE)
• Subseries:
  State
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHSFACE03NJ085
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  New Jersey ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-9
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20028691
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB2006-100891
• Citation:
  Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, FACE 03NJ085, 2005 Oct ; :1-6
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2006
• Performing Organization:
  New Jersey Department of Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  23 - Construction - (NAICS)
• Start Date:
  2004/09/01
• End Date:
  2006/08/31
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:95b437cf065d40d5dcc6a0c09bc83b6f239758f7ca4e74b9e01050510ef5cf993cc9c0cdb7a76819304d6fa0e178f24f07b8dcb62e9abf3cf1816e39f93d13bd
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/166458/cdc_166458_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 223.30 KB ]